The Guardian Has Received Libel Threat from 1971 War Criminal

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Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin

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Wednesday 7 October 2009 , The Guardian ran an excellent article "Prosecute Bangladesh's war criminals" by the academic, Delwar Hussain, on the legacy of the Bangladesh War of Liberation. In particular, Delwar discussed the involvement of the clerical fascist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami. He also named a number of prominent British Muslims who have been associated with war crimes in the Genocide of East Pakistan in 1971. These Prominent members and supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami are now well embedded within the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />United Kingdom. A Channel Four documentary from 1995 made allegations of involvement by British Bangladeshis in the genocide. Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin (Fact Sheet on Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin), director of Muslim Spiritual Care Provision in the NHS, who was until recently vice-chairman of the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre and was involved in setting up the Muslim Council of Britain, is one of the most prominent people to be accused of having carried out war crimes.

The Guardian has apparently received such a libel threat from solicitors representing Mr Mueen-Uddin. The Guardian has responded by deleting from Delwar Hussain’s article the following passage:

A Channel Four documentary from 1995 made allegations of involvement by British Bangladeshis in the genocide. Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, director of Muslim Spiritual Care Provision in the NHS, who was until recently vice-chairman of the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre and was involved in setting up the Muslim Council of Britain, is one of the most prominent people to be accused of having carried out war crimes.

Mueen-Uddin is alleged to have been part of a group that abducted and “disappeared” people. Witnesses at the time describe seeing him kidnapping a university professor and a journalist in Dhaka during the war. Mueen-Uddin told the documentary makers “all the accusations being made against me are … utterly false and malicious, and either politically motivated or instigated otherwise”.

Having left the newly created country of Bangladesh for London, Mueen-Uddin, along with other members of JI set up Islamic Forum Europe, an avowedly Islamist organisation connected to the East London Mosque.

In its place, the Guardian has printed this cryptic message:

• On 13 October this article was changed following a legal complaint.

The Guardian, by contrast, struggles to report factual information while handicapped by a law which is a serious and disturbing threat, to freedom of expression, the fight against extremism, and the struggle for justice by the people of Bangladesh. 

Source: 1. Lucy Lips

2. The Spittoon